


What If Spinel Didn't Snap

by Loover



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Tags May Change, i don't even know if half the characters tagged will show up, if they show up at all
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-09
Packaged: 2020-11-27 21:43:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20955371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loover/pseuds/Loover
Summary: The title says it all: "What if Spinel didn't snap?"Spinel made a conscious decision to harm innocent people after learning of Pink's death and Steven's existence.So I was wondering exactly what would happen if Spinel reacted calmly to the news instead?-I just wanna say, that there will be some cute moments between Steven and Spinel but this is in no way Steven x Spinel. You are welcome to perceive it as such, I don't have the energy to hate on you or your ship. So read this however you want.





	1. Game Over!

**Author's Note:**

> I am in no way a psychologist or anything so, I don't know if I'm writing the magnitude of Spinel's trauma and mental illness correctly.

Six thousand years.

Six thousand years since Pink began their game. 

This was such a long game.

Spinel hoped that when her diamond returned, she would be proud of her.

_ “Haha! Congratulations, Spinel! You won the game! I had so much fun playing with you!” _

Spinel wasn’t sure how she could win though. Or how she could lose. The only rule was to stand still. So surely as long as she stayed still, she would win.

This game was kind of boring. Spinel was tired of watching the garden rot and wilt around her. She was also tired of watching the stars and planets move agonizingly slow across the dark background of space.

She didn’t like that her feet had become rooted to the garden floor. She didn’t like that playing this game prevented her from taking care of herself. The light from her gem had faded, her bright pink hair now a dull magenta and her adorable heart-shaped buns began to sag.

She had hoped to look nicer upon Pink’s return. But maybe Pink wouldn’t be too upset. She’d probably excuse her appearance because of the game. 

All Spinel cared about was her Diamond’s happiness. She’d happily do anything if it made Pink smile or laugh.

But maybe, just maybe, she'd ask Pink nicely to not play this game again. At least for a little while.

Suddenly, a beeping noise pulled Spinel out of her thoughts. 

She turned her head to the source of the noise. Hopefully that didn’t count as moving.

It's was the communicator. Nobody’s called here in six thousand years. Spinel wondered who it could be. 

Sometimes Blue and Yellow Diamond would call and tell Pink it was time to go back to Homeworld. But Pink wasn’t here, so It couldn’t be them. 

It most likely wasn’t White Diamond either. To her knowledge, White didn’t talk much. Not even to the other Diamonds according to what Pink had told her.

  


Finally, the communicator stopped glitching and Spinel could hear music. 

Music? How strange. But Spinel wasn’t complaining. The silence of space was getting real old. And she hadn’t heard music in so long.

Then there was singing. A voice she had never heard before. But it was soon accompanied by voices she did recognize. Yellow and Blue. 

Then that other unknown voice must be White Diamond. Why were the Diamonds singing? 

They were singing about someone named Steven. Steven Universe. Singing about how he was compassionate, his ability to love someone even at their worst, how he’s amazing because he can grow. Which is impossible for gems to do. 

Hybrid son of a diamond? Human son of rose? What did that mean? 

Spinel noticed that she didn’t hear Pink’s voice in the song. Strange. 

Then, White Diamond began speaking as she turned the pages in a picture book.

_ “Once upon a time, the _ _ Gem _ _ Homeworld was ruled by Diamonds -- White, _ _ Yellow _ _ , _ _ Blue _ _ , and the littlest Diamond, _ _ Pink _ _ . While the other Diamonds conquered many worlds across the galaxy, Pink had only one -- the planet Earth. One day, Pink fled the comforts of Homeworld. On Earth, she made a new home, new friends, and finally, new life, giving up her form to bequeath her gem to her half-human son. Without Pink, Gemkind entered an era of despair. But, when Steven Universe learned of his heritage, he reunited with his fellow Diamonds and championed a new era of peace and freedom across the furthest reaches of space.” _ White then shuts the book and the camera focuses in on her face. _ “And now, dear Gems everywhere, I'm pleased to announce that Steven is finally ready to take his rightful place on Pink Diamond's throne!” _

New friends? New life? What was going on? Where is Pink?

The camera then shifted and Spinel finally got to see who this Steven guy was.

_ “How’s it going everybody?” _He greeted politely.

_ “I know you all might be thinking of me as the new Pink Diamond, but you don't have to put me on a throne. I already have a rightful place, and it's on Earth.” _ He said. “ _ It's a beach house _ , _ where I live with my friends, Garnet , Amethyst , and Pearl . As much as I've loved dismantling the empire and saving all your planets, I can't wait to get home and spend some quality time with my friends.” _

The footage then panned up to White Diamond who told someone to cut the feed. Likely a Pearl or a Peridot.

Except the feed didn’t cut. The recorded footage began to loop on the glitchy, old communicator. 

Repeating the words over and over again. 

Friends? New friends? Other Friends? Pink didn’t leave to play a game, She left to go make new friends.. What was wrong with Spinel?! Was she not good enough!?

Pink...never intended to come back. This was never a game. Pink just stopped loving her.

Pink stopped loving her. 

And now she’s gone. Survived by her son and all of her brand new friends. 

Spinel felt like a fool to have obediently waited in this garden for someone who didn’t care.

Looking back on all that wasted time she spent, it should have been obvious. She should have known that Pink wasn’t coming back. No game last that long.

And now, everyone, the entire universe, seemed to have moved on without her.

The message continued to loop. It was driving Spinel mad. She didn’t wanna hear the story anymore!

For the first time in six thousand years, she moved. She ripped her feet from their roots and ran over to the communicator. She stretched her arm and in a fit of rage, smashed the communicator to pieces with her fist.

The message finally stopped.

Spinel breathed heavily before she fell to her knees, allowing her arms to extend and pile on her lap like rope.

She cried. She doesn’t know for how long, but she cried. 

She cried so much, cried so hard. She was so heartbroken and hurt. Her form began to falter.

The light making up her body began to glitch and reshape itself. Her unkempt hearts became jagged pigtails, the tears she cried became permanently marked on her cheeks as black streaks, and her cute, squeaky shoes became pointed boots.

And her gem, her heart, rotated upside down.

After laying down and feeling absolutely pathetic for a while, Spinel’s tears finally ceased.It had probably been a few hours since the message came through. 

Spinel wondered what to do with herself now. Pink was gone, she had no Diamond to entertain. She wasn’t assigned to any other gem. And according to the message, Pink’s son had established peace across the universe. So getting assigned to someone seemed to be a thing of the past. 

She was free right?

So what did she want to do? What should she do? She doesn’t know what to do with herself. She wishes she knew someone who could help her. Someone who could help her feel better, someone who could help her heal. Someone who wanted her around…

Wait a minute, could she? No! She couldn’t! It would be weird, wouldn’t it? To go to Pink’s son for help.

But the rest of the Diamonds said it, or rather, sang it themselves, that Steven was so compassionate that he could love someone even at their worst. He had spread peace across the entire universe and set every gem free of their assigned purpose in gem hierarchy.

Surely he wouldn’t mind helping her, right? Just for a little bit. Spinel really didn’t want to burden anyone, especially after she apparently bothered someone so much that they left her in a garden for the past six thousand years.

But from what Spinel could gather from the message, Steven was in to way Pink. 

He had her gem, but other than that, he seemed to be a completely different person. Maybe he won't find Spinel annoying. And maybe, if she asks super nicely, Steven will help her.

Spinel walked over to the warp pad on the other side of the garden.

She stood on top of it and looked over the landscape of the garden. 

She couldn’t believe she was leaving this place. The place she never left. The place she would have stayed if the message hadn’t come through. Even if Steven didn’t want to help her, Spinel couldn’t help but feel a little happy about the game finally being over. Finally allowed to leave and move.

Although it was never a game in the first place, she consider this a win.

She set course for Earth in her head and the warp pad blipped her away. 


	2. Rest

Spinel was warped to what she assumed was Earth. She had never been, Pink never brought her after all. 

She arrived in a little town with different kinds of gems walking around. Some Spinel knew from what Pink told her of other gems, but some were new to her. 

Nobody paid her any mind upon her arrival. They probably thought she lived here already. 

Spinel walked around. Did any of these gems know Steven or where he was? 

Spinel didn't know how to ask any of the gems around for direction. She never got to meet anyone outside of Pink, Blue and Yellow. And Pink's Pearl. 

Spinel walked some more. She was beginning to wonder if this was a good idea. 

She stopped in her tracks when she noticed a group of amethysts talking amongst each other. 

Amethysts. Steven said one of his friends was an amethyst. Maybe one of them was Steven's amethyst!

"Hey! Hey, you amethysts!" Spinel's shyness and anxiety went out the window, her desire to find Steven out weighing everything. 

"Please, are any of you amethysts friends with Steven Universe?" She asked. She hoped she sounded as polite as possible. 

"Uh, I am." The shortest amethyst spoke up. 

"Can you- can you please take me to him?" 

"Why? Are you a new friend of his or something?" 

Spinel froze in place for a moment. Oh to be someone's friends again. 

"N-no. But I have a favor to ask him. May I please see him?”

The amethyst looked her up and down judgingly.

“Hmm..okay, whateves. Just follow me. Steven’s probably in his room or something.”

“Th-thank you!” Spinel said. 

She couldn’t believe how lucky she was, to find the exact amethyst Steven was friends with, and now she was being led straight to him!  
  
“So, what’s this favor you gotta ask Steven anyway?” The amethyst asked.

Under normal circumstances, Spinel thinks she would have been obligated to answer the quartz soldier that was protecting a Diamond. 

But this amethyst seemed very relaxed and if all gems are really free now does that mean..she has a right to privacy??

“Um...It's personal?” Spinel said, unsure of herself.

“Oh, Okay dude. Sorry for asking then.”

The rest of the walk continued in a sort of comfortable silence before the amethyst lead her up the stairs of the what she could only assume was the “beach house” Steven mentioned in his message. 

She walked in and began shouting, startling Spinel.

“HEY STEVEN!! THERE’S SOME GEM DOWN HERE WHO WANTS TO ASK YOU SOMETHING!!”

“Uh,Sure thing! Down in a bit!” Said a voice. That same voice in the message.

Spinel must have looked incredibly nervous because the amethyst put a hand on her shoulder,

Trying to comfort her. 

“Hey, don’t worry, Steven’s super chill. I’m sure he’ll help you out the best he can.”

Spinel simply nodded. She was nervous that if she said anything else other than the words she planned to say to Steven, she’d mess up.

Finally there were footsteps, and Steven came down the stairs. “Hey Amethyst!” He said 

“Yo!” She said in response. 

Steven then turned his attention onto Spinel and knelt down to her level.

“Is this the gem that needed something from me? Hi there, I’m Steven Universe. I’m sorry but I don’t think I’ve seen you around before. Who are you?”

“Spinel. I’m Spinel. You probably don’t know me though, right?” 

“Should I know you?” Steven asked. 

Spinel was about to explain who she was when suddenly a door opened and she hears another familiar voice.

“Steven, there you are! I was just about to-” 

Pink Diamond’s pearl froze in her tracks upon seeing Spinel. 

“...SPINEL?!” Pearl exclaimed.

“Long time no see...Pearl” Spinel said nervously.

“Pearl, you two know each other?” Steven asked. 

“Well, yes, but Spinel, what are you doing here?”

“I was..I was..” Spinel didn’t know what to say. She wanted to tell Steven who she was but now Pearl wanted to know what she was doing here. She didn’t know who to answer first, or how to say what she needed to say.

The world around her started to turn dark, a ringing silence went off in her head even though Pearl and Amethyst were clearly trying to say something to her.

“Spinel. Look at me.” A voice cut through the ringing. A smooth, calming voice. 

“Breath.” 

On command, Spinel took a deep breath. 

"Good. Now, focus on me and go ahead and tell me what you wanted to tell me." 

"I...I was a playmate for Pink Diamond." She began. "i was created to be her best friend. But, when she finally got the Earth for her first colony, she..she didn't want me to come. So she told me to play a game…" 

"A game?" Steven asked. 

"Yes. A game. The rules were that I had to stand still in the garden until Pink came back for me…" 

"And she never came back, did she?" Steven said, already figuring out the end to Spinel's tale.

Spinel silently nodded as huge tears began to fall from her eyes. 

"Spinel, I'm so sorry Mom did that to you…" Steven said as he gently coaxed Spinel into a hug. 

Spinel was surprised that Steven made the move to hug her at all. She wanted to restrain herself, she didn't deserve a hug, she only came here to burden Steven with her problems and now he's offering her a hug. 

Spinel hadn't had a hug in so long. She used to hug Pink all the time…

Too emotionally weak to resist, Spinel accepted the hug, she cried into Steven's chest. 

After a while, Spinel was told the entire story by Pearl. 

How Pink came to the Earth and wanted to preserve it's life. So she disguised herself has Rose Quartz, started a war, faked her shattering and eventually fell in love with a human named Greg and gave up her form to have Steven. 

And then Steven told Spinel how he has basically been answering for his mother's crimes and wrong doings ever since. 

"I was hoping universal peace would make up for all the trouble mom caused but...I guess I missed a spot. I'm sorry, Spinel." He said, referring to Spinel's whole situation in a light hearted manner. 

"Sorry!? You don't have anything to apologize for! It's not your fault Pink left me there. If anything, I'm sorry to have showed up on your doorstep beggin' for pity like this. You have already cleaned up enough of your mother's messes. Maybe..maybe I should go. But I'm not sure where I'll go. When I got your message, I didn't know what to do with myself. I came to you because I didn't know who else I could go to and-"

"Whoa, whoa! Easy there, Spinel. Trust me, you did the right thing coming to me. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you aren't on that garden anymore. I've basically made it my job to fix all the problems my mom left behind, and that includes you. Uh- not to say that you're a problem! You aren't a problem! You just, she hurt you and I wanna help you heal!" Steven said with a bit of nervous grin. 

Spinel didn't know how someone so kind and loving like this could be Pink's son. He was much better than her. 

"So, Spinel, would you like to be friends?" Steven asked, holding out his hand.

Spinel stared at it for a moment. Friend? Spinel thought all this was way too good to be true. At first, she couldn't believe Steven actually wanted to help her. But now he's just straight up offering to be her new friend.

She took Steven's hand and enthusiastically agreed to begin a new friendship with him. He smiled at her. 

Things were lookin' up for ol' Spinel. 

Her moment of bliss was interrupted by Pearl hugging her. 

"Oh Spinel! I'm so sorry! I asked her about you when she came back to her room and she said that she left you but she told me someone would come get you! So I didn't give it a second thought! She never said that she just left you to stand there! If I had known I would have definitely sent someone to come get you all those years ago and-" 

"Oh, Pearl, it's okay! I swear! If she didn't tell you, there's no way you could have known. Plus, you were busy with a whole war and everything. Needless to say, you were very distracted."

Spinel and Pearl cried and hugged it out for a while before Pearl decided it was time to go back to her room to finish something. 

Amethyst left as well. 

"Hmm...Garnet's probably busy hanging out with the Off Colors. I guess you can just meet her tomorrow." 

Garnet? Oh yeah, Steven said he was friends with a garnet as well. 

“Well, Spinel, I’m going to sleep. You can stay here and try to sleep if you want to, or you can do something else.”

“Sleep?” Spinel questioned. 

Steven chuckled. “Oh yeah. After all my time around gems I still forget that most of you have no idea what sleep is.” He sat on the couch next to her. “Sleep is when you lay down, close your eyes, and don’t think about anything. You become unconscious for a while, but when you wake up, you’ll feel great. Humans have to sleep for a few hours every night, it's really unhealthy for us if we don’t. Gems don’t usually sleep but Amethyst and a lot of the gems back at Little Homeworld really enjoy it and do it all the time.”

“So you lay still...for a long time?” Spinel asked. 

Steven’s face cringed. “Right. After what you have been through, I can see how sleep can seem...unappealing, at first. But I promise it’s not really like that! Sleep is a form of relaxation. You’ll be unconscious so it will be completely different than standing still. You might even have a dream!”

“A dream?”

“Yeah, sometimes, when you sleep, all the thoughts in your head get mixed up into a weird story. You can have a good dream, or a bad dream. We call those nightmares. Or you might not dream anything at all. You can’t really control what you get though so, everytime you sleep, it's a gamble..”

Spinel thought it over. Relaxation sounded pretty nice. She had been standing still with her eyes wide open for the past six thousand years. Sleep sounded like a neat thing to try. 

“Okay, I’ll try sleepin’.”

Steven smiled. He got her a pillow and a blanket from the closet.

“Okay you can sleep here on the couch. I’ll be in my room if you need me.”

Spinel simply nodded as steven yawned and walked up to his room. 

Spinel was alone for about five whole minutes before she went knocking on Steven’s door.

Steven opened the door wearing different clothing. A shirt that seemed much too big for him, and shorts. 

"Spinel? What's wrong can't sleep?" He asked. 

"No, it's not quite that it's just...I don't wanna be alone is all…" 

"Ah, I get it. Why don't you sleep in my room with me?" 

"R-really? Are you sure?" 

"Of course. I offered, didn't I?" Steven opened the door wide enough to let Spinel in. "I think I have a sleeping bag around here somewhere." 

Steven began rummaging around in his room until he found a bright blue sleeping bag and rolled it out on the floor for Spinel. 

"Here, you can crawl inside this to sleep, it's super soft and cozy!" Steven said, smiling brightly. 

Spinel crawled in the sleeping bag and true to Steven's words, it was very soft and warm inside. 

"I'll be right here in my bed next to you. So don't be afraid to wake me up if you have a nightmare, okay?" 

Spinel nodded. "Thank you, Steven. I can't thank you enough." 

"No need, go ahead and try sleeping now okay?” 

  
Spinel closed her eyes and was met with darkness. 

Almost like the darkness of space. But it wasn’t like space. 

There were no planets. No stars. Not even a garden. Just an empty black void of silence and darkness. It was oddly relaxing, just like Steven had told her.

She took deep breaths and soon found herself resting. 

Finally resting after playing a long game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of people headcanon that Spinel wouldn't enjoy sleeping because she would have nightmares or she would feel like people would leave her while she slept. 
> 
> Those are totally valid but I LOVE sleep more than anything in the entire world and I love Spinel!  
So I wanted Spinel to enjoy some well deserved rest after six thousand years of standing.
> 
> Also, some people think Spinel would low-key resent Pearl since Pink chose to keep her around instead of Spinel.  
But I feel like Pearl would feel very sorry for Spinel and Spinel would find a bit of comfort from her. After all, they were both hurt by Pink if different ways.
> 
> Also, I'm pretty sure at the time of Steven's universal broadcast, Earth only has 2 galaxy warps, the one in Little Homeworld and the one at Steven's house. So if Spinel gets on the garden warp and wants to go to Earth, it would probs warp her to Little Homeworld by default right? Cuz i think the warp at Steven's house is like his own personal warp? Idk...


	3. Laughter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> im sorry this chapter is a bit short

When Spinel woke up, the first thing she noticed was that she wasn’t in the garden.

Where was she? Oh yeah, Pink disappeared and Spinel came to Earth to ask for her son’s help. 

Okay, so she was in a safe place. Why was she laying down though? And why was she in this weird, cozy sack? Spinel looked down and saw that her arms were stretched out and bunched up in the sack with her like rope, which is something she only did if she was feeling sad or relaxed. 

Relaxed... Oh that’s right! She had been sleeping!

Spinel retracted her arms back to their default length and let out a big yawn.

Gee, sleepin’ sure did feel great. She felt almost brand new! She wasn’t as bright a pink as she used to be, but she could tell that the light making up her body was looking a little better.

She sat up and looked outside the bedroom’s window to see that Earth’s sun has risen.

Then she looked at Steven’s bed and noticed it was empty.

Steven was gone. 

A sense of fear started to seep into her mind. Did Steven really leave her? Already? Just like that!? 

No, no he couldn’t have, right? She could tell from the moment he offered to be her new friend that he was different from Pink. His smile wasn’t fake and his words weren’t lies. He probably had something important to do. And he’s so kind, he probably didn’t want to wake her.

After calming herself down, Spinel stood up and left the room to find Amethyst downstairs stuffing her face full of.. Something.

  


Upon seeing her, Amethyst spit everything out. 

“OH DANG GURL! YOU’ER FINALLY AWAKE!!” 

“Uh, yeah? Was I sleeping for long?” Spinel asked, confused by her reaction since Steven said she’s one of the gems who sleep all the time.

“Uh, hello? You’ve been asleep for days! Oh my gosh I HAVE to text Steven! He’ll be so relieved!”

“Days!?? How many days??!”

“Uh, I don’t know, like ten maybe?” 

“TEN!?”

“Yeah! I mean I know I can sleep for days but like, the most I've ever done is like, three.” 

Spinel couldn’t believe it. Or understand it. She had been asleep for ten whole days!? She could have sworn she had only been out for a few hours. Why would she sleep for ten days straight?

And Steven. Amethyst said he’d be relieved when he hears she’s awake, and as happy as she was to know he cared, did that mean she made him worry!? Spinel didn’t mean to do that! She had to find him, and apologize to him!

“Where’s Steven?” Spinel asked. 

“He’ll be back soon. He’s just outside talking to the Diamonds.”

“The D-Diamonds are here?” 

“Yeah, they’ve come to Earth like twice already trying to convince Steven to come live with them back on Homeworld. They really want him to take Pink Diamond’s throne.”

Spinel wanted to go outside and find Steven but she couldn’t interrupt a conversation between Diamonds. Plus, she didn’t want White, Yellow or Blue to see her the way she looked right now. 

She’ll just wait for Steven to come home. In the meantime, whatever Amethyst was doing seemed interestin’ enough to keep her occupied for a while.

“Hey, whatcha doin’?” Spinel asked.

“Eating a pizza burrito. Want some?”

“Eatin’?”

“Oh, you are gonna love this! Come on, let me teach you some tricks.”

For the rest of the morning, Amethyst taught Spinel about the joys of eating and how to shapeshift the necessary organs to do so.

For the first time in a while, Spinel found herself having actual fun. It had been so long since she laughed with someone. Amethyst had lots of jokes.

Finally, after what felt like an hour of goofing off, Steven came through the door.

“Amethyst! I got your text is Spinel finally-” Steven stopped when he saw Spinel sitting with Amethyst on the couch eating donuts. “Spinel! You really are awake!” 

“Hi Steven-oh!” Spinel was cut off when Steven rushed up and gave her a big hug.

“I’m so glad you're awake!” He exclaimed before putting her back down. “I tried to wake you up the next day but you wouldn’t budge! So I asked Pearl what could have been wrong and she said that standing in space for a super long time with hardly any light and no rest made the light from your gem super dull so when you fell asleep for the first time, your gem gem just sort of shut down and started soaking up all the sunlight and moonlight from my window while you slept.”

  


Oh! So that’s why she was asleep for so long. That would explain why her colors are brighter than they were when she first arrived.

“Pearl said you’d be out for a while and I was worried you’d stay asleep for years with how much light you probably needed to catch up on after what you’ve been through.”

“Steven, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean ta make ya worry about me!” 

“Don’t worry about it Spinel! I’m just glad you are awake now. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to help you adjust to life on Earth. But it looks like Amethyst is already doing that for me, huh..”

“Hey man, If any gem is going to teach homeworld newbies how to eat, it's gonna be me!” Amethyst sad as she finished eating a tub of yogurt and then proceeded to eat the plastic tub the yogurt came in.

“Sure, Amethyst…” Steven said as he laughed.

Spinel couldn’t help but laugh too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a feeling Spinel and Amethyst would get along just fine, if they spent more time together, they would totally share a brain cell.


	4. Security Hoodie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> short chapter yet again

Amethyst took a bunch of food from the fridge and went into her room to finish it all by herself. Steven laughed at her antics before turning his attention back to Spinel.

“So Spinel, tell me what you dreamed about for the past ten days.”

“Dream?Oh yeah...I don’t think I had one of those…”

“Whoa, seriously? Even after sleeping for so long?” Steven asked, surprised.

“Nope. I guess I didn’t even have enough energy to dream..”

“Well, at least you got lots of rest. How do you feel?”

“Better. I feel a little better.” She smiled.

“Well that’s good to hear. So, today I was thinking I’d show you around Beach City. That sound okay to you?”

Spinel’s smile quickly turned into a frown, looking away from Steven with an anxious expression on her face.

“Spinel? Is something wrong? It's okay if you don’t want to, we can wait.”

“No, it's not that I’m not ready…”

“Well, what’s the matter? You can tell me.”

“Well I...I’m just worried.”

“Worried about what?”

“When you were talking with the Diamonds, I wanted ta come and greet ya but I didn’t want them seein’ me like this.” Said Spinel as she gestured to her face and hair. “I’m not s’pposed ta look like this, ya know. I’m s’pposed ta be all huggable and cute-like and now I’m...not.”

Spinel sat on the floor in front of the couch, knees tucked to her chest and arms wrapped around her body.

“Aw, Spinel, You're on Earth now, No one is going to judge you because of what you look like.”

“But Steven, I don’t look right!” Spinel argued.

“That’s okay! There is no right or wrong way to look on Earth! Trust me, Spinel.”

Spinel looked up at Steven. She did trust him. Trusted him more than she would ever trust Pink if she was still around. But she still felt…

“I still feel weird though…” She said.

“Hmmm…” Steven thought for a moment. “Wait here for a second, I think I know something that will help.”

Steven then ran up to his room. Spinel could hear him fumbling around looking for something.

“Aha! I knew I still had this stuff!” She heard Steven proclaim before running down the stairs.

In a blur of speed, Steven rushed up to her and slipped a warm comfy thing over her head.

“What’s this?” She questioned as she slipped her arms through the sleeves.

“It's my old black hoodie! I had a little bit of a goth phase when I turned fifthteen…”

Spinel gave him a puzzled look. “Goth phase?” 

“Don’t worry about it.” He said as he smiled nervously. “Anyway, I thought your uh, tears, looked like running mascara. It's stuff humans wear on their eyes when they wanna look edgy and serious. So I thought if you wore this, people would just think your cool and edgy. I got matching accessories too!” He said excitedly as he put on a studded choker on Spinel’s neck and matching studded cuff bracelets on each of her wrists. He then held up a mirror for Spinel to look at herself.

“What do you think?” 

Spinel examined her new look in the mirror. She didn’t look cute or huggable, but the stuff Steven put on her did make it so her black tears didn’t look so out of place. Plus this hoodie thing felt kinda cozy, like the sleeping bag Steven let her use. She felt sort of..safe in it. 

“I look...Alright..”

“Okay, You ready for your personal tour of Beach City?”

Spinel nodded and then followed Steven out of the house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want Spinel to wear a ding dang hoodie and feel safe


End file.
